. From Creole to Carabalí

. From Creole to Carabalí

Ivor L. Miller

Publisher:

University Press of Mississippi

DOI:10.14325/mississippi/9781934110836.003.0005

This chapter describes how creoles, or Cuban-born initiates, were assimilated into Cross River traditions through Abakuá practice. It focuses on how an Abakuá title-holder in Havana named Andrés Petit created the first lodge of white men, thereby founding an entire lineage that continues today. This process was related to general conditions in Cuba at the time, including economic crises and tensions with the colonial regime. The creative responses of Abakuá leadership made it the first integrated institution in Cuba, before the Wars of Independence began and before the rebel leaders such as Antonio Maceo and José Martí proclaimed that an independent Cuba would be an integrated one.

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